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Every single night I have the hardest time falling asleep. For the most part it takes me roughly 4 ish hours every night just to doze off. Usually before bed I set 5 (not even a joke) loud and obnoxious alarms.I sleep through all of them no matter what, finally my future husband gets irritated and wakes me up. Still it takes me almost an hour for consciousness to kick in. If i'm left to sleep with out an alarm I sleep from 10-20 hours.... if it's a day off of work it averages 20 hours. If it's a day I have to be to work (3-9 pm 6 days a week) 10 hours average. Yet I cannot for the life of me GET TO SLEEP.... and this cycle has been going on since I was a child. Any advice folks?

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4 Replies |Watch This Discussion | Report This| Share this:Can't fall asleep every night but once I do.... I'll sleep for ever.Every single night I have the hardest time falling asleep. For the most part it takes me roughly 4 ish hours every night just to doze off. Usually before bed I set 5 (not even a joke) loud and obnoxious alarms.I sleep through all of them no matter what, finally my future husband gets irritated and wakes me up. Still it takes me almost an hour for consciousness to kick in. If i'm left to sleep with out an alarm I sleep from 10-20 hours.... if it's a day off of work it averages 20 hours. If it's a day I have to be to work (3-9 pm 6 days a week) 10 hours average. Yet I cannot for the life of me GET TO SLEEP.... and this cycle has been going on since I was a child. Any advice folks?

Do you practice good sleep hygiene? I strongly encourage you to visit a sleep Dr. I had a very similar problem and it ended up not being pathological as so many people suggested. I had spent years visiting various Dr.s only to get healthy test results back. Not until I learned proper sleep hygiene did my sleep cycle get fixed. I can still sleep about 15 hours once or twice a month but is no longer the norm. The trick to waking up is to have to actually speak to someone and then even if you try to go back to sleep your sleep was disrupted enough that hopefully you can wake soon.

My normal sleep cycle, after visiting 3 separate sleep Dr.s for sleep studies is unique and I believe we all are as individuals. I sleep 10 hours every 32-36 hours. I sleep when I am sleepy and don't worry about the fact that my body just doesn't need a daily sleep like most others. Our sleep patterns are individual and to me the key is feeling refreshed when I wake up and no longer allowing my sleep problems affect my job, social life, or marriage.The sleep studies were conducted in a hospital like setting but the rooms are, well, as close to a hotel room as hospital can get, so you feel comfortable. They hook up some electrodes to your head and do other medical things (none were invasive I want to note) that allows them to know more about your sleep than you could dream, or in our cases, not dream of. I had to pay out of my pocket for the additional night since I did not sleep the night of the study and we really needed to see my brain activity, or lack thereof, while I was sleeping. After I finally slept, I received a report which meant nothing to me other than interesting words like sleep spindles, but to the Dr.s let them know how deeply I was sleeping and tons of other important stuff. It even checked for sleep apnea which I do not have.Let me mention that I am a very active person and spend hours a day outdoors leading hikes for groups several days a week ranging from 2-30 miles in one day so no lack of sun for this gal.Part of the solution was as simple as covering the LED lights on my computer which I leave on overnight since I am sleeping while others will be awake and don't bother turning it off. Also, controlling the total amount of light in the room where you sleep is very important. I read "Good Nigh" The Sleep Doctor's 4-Week Program to better Sleep and Better Health by Michael Breus, Ph.D. and many of the books suggestions worked very well and were simple and best of all, very inexpensive to imply.My husband of 20 years (I am 40) is much happier as well.BTW, I also have normally had this unique sleep cycle since I was a baby and my mother tells me she took me to the Dr. very worried about my health. This seemed to be important info for the Dr.s as they knew if was my baseline and not a change in sleep habits.While I did have to have some bloodwork to rule out some things, it was the only invasive part of the experience.

I do have a question for you...why do you try to sleep when you are not tired? Is it because it is what everyone else is doing so you are trying to force yourself to get sleepy? Please don't lay in bed for 4 hours as that will become a place of stress for you. If after laying down for about 30 minutes you are still awake, get out of bed and do something else for a while and then try again. I found out that I dreaded going to sleep because of all of the stress related to me fighting and willing myself to go to sleep for hours and look at the bed as something I had to master, not to mention my husband sleeping soundly (he is the type that is sleeping by the time his head hits the pillow and does not need an alarm to wake up), The bed is for sleep and sex and that is it. Hope this helps and if you shoot me an e-mail I will be happy to send you Dr Breus' book now that I am finished with Sweet Dreams from someone else who shares a similar challenge.

Thanks for your Reply!

Report This| Share this:Can't fall asleep every night but once I do.... I'll sleep for ever.Do you practice good sleep hygiene? I strongly encourage you to visit a sleep Dr. I had a very similar problem and it ended up not being pathological as so many people suggested. I had spent years visiting various Dr.s only to get healthy test results back. Not until I learned proper sleep hygiene did my sleep cycle get fixed. I can still sleep about 15 hours once or twice a month but is no longer the norm. The trick to waking up is to have to actually speak to someone and then even if you try to go back to sleep your sleep was disrupted enough that hopefully you can wake soon.

My normal sleep cycle, after visiting 3 separate sleep Dr.s for sleep studies is unique and I believe we all are as individuals. I sleep 10 hours every 32-36 hours. I sleep when I am sleepy and don't worry about the fact that my body just doesn't need a daily sleep like most others. Our sleep patterns are individual and to me the key is feeling refreshed when I wake up and no longer allowing my sleep problems affect my job, social life, or marriage.The sleep studies were conducted in a hospital like setting but the rooms are, well, as close to a hotel room as hospital can get, so you feel comfortable. They hook up some electrodes to your head and do other medical things (none were invasive I want to note) that allows them to know more about your sleep than you could dream, or in our cases, not dream of. I had to pay out of my pocket for the additional night since I did not sleep the night of the study and we really needed to see my brain activity, or lack thereof, while I was sleeping. After I finally slept, I received a report which meant nothing to me other than interesting words like sleep spindles, but to the Dr.s let them know how deeply I was sleeping and tons of other important stuff. It even checked for sleep apnea which I do not have.Let me mention that I am a very active person and spend hours a day outdoors leading hikes for groups several days a week ranging from 2-30 miles in one day so no lack of sun for this gal.Part of the solution was as simple as covering the LED lights on my computer which I leave on overnight since I am sleeping while others will be awake and don't bother turning it off. Also, controlling the total amount of light in the room where you sleep is very important. I read "Good Nigh" The Sleep Doctor's 4-Week Program to better Sleep and Better Health by Michael Breus, Ph.D. and many of the books suggestions worked very well and were simple and best of all, very inexpensive to imply.My husband of 20 years (I am 40) is much happier as well.BTW, I also have normally had this unique sleep cycle since I was a baby and my mother tells me she took me to the Dr. very worried about my health. This seemed to be important info for the Dr.s as they knew if was my baseline and not a change in sleep habits.While I did have to have some bloodwork to rule out some things, it was the only invasive part of the experience.

I do have a question for you...why do you try to sleep when you are not tired? Is it because it is what everyone else is doing so you are trying to force yourself to get sleepy? Please don't lay in bed for 4 hours as that will become a place of stress for you. If after laying down for about 30 minutes you are still awake, get out of bed and do something else for a while and then try again. I found out that I dreaded going to sleep because of all of the stress related to me fighting and willing myself to go to sleep for hours and look at the bed as something I had to master, not to mention my husband sleeping soundly (he is the type that is sleeping by the time his head hits the pillow and does not need an alarm to wake up), The bed is for sleep and sex and that is it. Hope this helps and if you shoot me an e-mail I will be happy to send you Dr Breus' book now that I am finished with Sweet Dreams from someone else who shares a similar challenge.

I have sleeping problems all my life; I worked the grave shift many yrs; finally i over worked with the flu (100hrs / wk) and I slept only 3 hrs a day, because I had important matters to attend; I got CFS which is a serious condition - later on- became life threatening; I had it for about 5yrs; went to doctors; stayed off sugar probable Candida, took antifungal drugs to no avail; finally got rid of it thru meditation tapes ( Sylva Method). Magnesium, Melatonin, GH-3 oral from Gerovital( the best ) Maybe IV might work; rest; Vitamins. Regime with tips on how to sleep like no lights. can't sleep don't worry get up and do something for exampe read a book, get on the internet look up CFS.... But later on I repeated the same mistake with the flu & overworking, stress.Twice. 2nd time wanted to get a flu shot but the company didn't want to pay for it . I was financially challenged. And trouble started Heart failure - No plaque. low BP , heart failure , then defibulator ( big mistake) My heart became scarred inside & out..Almost died,coma for almost 5 mo, because of the ablation Very Big Mistake & my doctor knew for them it was a last resort. My lungs flooded I was drowning punctured many times- a lot of fluid I lost my Heart literally I was on BVAD BiVentrical Assistance Device. It saved my Life.4pds of machinery next to my heart. it Was a threat later because I got a big hernia that can't be operated. because I was lucky to a heart transplant. My good cardiologist says it won't heal too early. My operation is scheduled end of July (1yr & 4 mo. after the transplant. So I tell you this is Serious. In my case I came to the conclusion that because of lack of sleep & trying to fall asleep. I fell into sleep, that was too deep. Some pointers to this conclusion is I aways had good oxygen saturation but in Hospital at 4:00 AM it would fall to 80%. My defibulator would go off early at that before too several times. My VCD went off altogether about 53 x I assumed that to help scar my heart, Enlarged heart came from the lack of O2; I've always had big tonsils. The funny thing is my !st Cardiologist sent me to a lung specialist although he was very good. He check my lungs although I had difficulty breathing my oxygen saturation was better than his 99%. He gave me just Advair which was useless. But he could've sent me for sleep analysis. One of his specialties also throat. After my hernia operation which is a very serious operation. I 'll be going for a sleep analysis. I take Lunesta3mg. helps me fall asleep in the hospital I got Ambien newer version it works too. If I don't fall asleep I do something because worries is much worse. then I take a nap in the morning I don't want sleep to long. Shame sleeping all day. Sometimes I sleep 20 hr like I had CFS, but this time I wake up fresh next night I don't have troubel falling asleep; I make it a priority to keep Sleep Hygiene. My problem comes in 3 day cycles. On the 3rd night I take lunesta or melatonin. A normal sleeping pill which makes me sleep longer and a little unrefreshed but I take it, because it might have antirejection properties (allergy ingredient). So have asleep study done soon. 2 of my grandchildren have their tonsils & andenoids removed, they snored. feel much better 1 was always sleepynot himself. SNORING IS NOT GOOD !!!! take my advice use sleep hygiene ASAP Good luck take this seriously it will save your like if You don't take care of it

Thanks for your Reply!

Report This| Share this:Can't fall asleep every night but once I do.... I'll sleep for ever.I have sleeping problems all my life; I worked the grave shift many yrs; finally i over worked with the flu (100hrs / wk) and I slept only 3 hrs a day, because I had important matters to attend; I got CFS which is a serious condition - later on- became life threatening; I had it for about 5yrs; went to doctors; stayed off sugar probable Candida, took antifungal drugs to no avail; finally got rid of it thru meditation tapes ( Sylva Method). Magnesium, Melatonin, GH-3 oral from Gerovital( the best ) Maybe IV might work; rest; Vitamins. Regime with tips on how to sleep like no lights. can't sleep don't worry get up and do something for exampe read a book, get on the internet look up CFS.... But later on I repeated the same mistake with the flu & overworking, stress.Twice. 2nd time wanted to get a flu shot but the company didn't want to pay for it . I was financially challenged. And trouble started Heart failure - No plaque. low BP , heart failure , then defibulator ( big mistake) My heart became scarred inside & out..Almost died,coma for almost 5 mo, because of the ablation Very Big Mistake & my doctor knew for them it was a last resort. My lungs flooded I was drowning punctured many times- a lot of fluid I lost my Heart literally I was on BVAD BiVentrical Assistance Device. It saved my Life.4pds of machinery next to my heart. it Was a threat later because I got a big hernia that can't be operated. because I was lucky to a heart transplant. My good cardiologist says it won't heal too early. My operation is scheduled end of July (1yr & 4 mo. after the transplant. So I tell you this is Serious. In my case I came to the conclusion that because of lack of sleep & trying to fall asleep. I fell into sleep, that was too deep. Some pointers to this conclusion is I aways had good oxygen saturation but in Hospital at 4:00 AM it would fall to 80%. My defibulator would go off early at that before too several times. My VCD went off altogether about 53 x I assumed that to help scar my heart, Enlarged heart came from the lack of O2; I've always had big tonsils. The funny thing is my !st Cardiologist sent me to a lung specialist although he was very good. He check my lungs although I had difficulty breathing my oxygen saturation was better than his 99%. He gave me just Advair which was useless. But he could've sent me for sleep analysis. One of his specialties also throat. After my hernia operation which is a very serious operation. I 'll be going for a sleep analysis. I take Lunesta3mg. helps me fall asleep in the hospital I got Ambien newer version it works too. If I don't fall asleep I do something because worries is much worse. then I take a nap in the morning I don't want sleep to long. Shame sleeping all day. Sometimes I sleep 20 hr like I had CFS, but this time I wake up fresh next night I don't have troubel falling asleep; I make it a priority to keep Sleep Hygiene. My problem comes in 3 day cycles. On the 3rd night I take lunesta or melatonin. A normal sleeping pill which makes me sleep longer and a little unrefreshed but I take it, because it might have antirejection properties (allergy ingredient). So have asleep study done soon. 2 of my grandchildren have their tonsils & andenoids removed, they snored. feel much better 1 was always sleepynot himself. SNORING IS NOT GOOD !!!! take my advice use sleep hygiene ASAP Good luck take this seriously it will save your like if You don't take care of it

OMG.... I've been living with this for years. I never right on forums but you described me to a t. It's 1:45am and I have to be up for work at 7:00. I'll be up til 2 or 3am. I cannot wake up to alarm clocks. I too have been setting 5 alarm clocks every 15-20 minutes at full blast and snoozing them all for at least an hour. I need someone in my life that can wake me up everyday and I've been so lucky so far. I have a VERY tolerant girlfriend. I have never researched this and have been just accepting it because I am able to function and I have a very flexible job but it's been killing me lately. It's only getting worse!!!! PLEASE HELP... Does anyone know what causes this and what you can do to fix it???? My sister has the same exact problem too. She's a high school teacher, owned a hair salon at the same time and finished her masters at 38 years old, while raising 2 kids. She stays up for 20 - 30 hours and sleeps for 16 - 24 hours straight!!!! The only thing I've found that helps has just recently become legal in MA and I don't think I'd get a MMC for this..... Now what???????????????

Thanks for your Reply!

Report This| Share this:Can't fall asleep every night but once I do.... I'll sleep for ever.OMG.... I've been living with this for years. I never right on forums but you described me to a t. It's 1:45am and I have to be up for work at 7:00. I'll be up til 2 or 3am. I cannot wake up to alarm clocks. I too have been setting 5 alarm clocks every 15-20 minutes at full blast and snoozing them all for at least an hour. I need someone in my life that can wake me up everyday and I've been so lucky so far. I have a VERY tolerant girlfriend. I have never researched this and have been just accepting it because I am able to function and I have a very flexible job but it's been killing me lately. It's only getting worse!!!! PLEASE HELP... Does anyone know what causes this and what you can do to fix it???? My sister has the same exact problem too. She's a high school teacher, owned a hair salon at the same time and finished her masters at 38 years old, while raising 2 kids. She stays up for 20 - 30 hours and sleeps for 16 - 24 hours straight!!!! The only thing I've found that helps has just recently become legal in MA and I don't think I'd get a MMC for this..... Now what???????????????

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